Jesus had a need. He was hungry. He saw a fig tree but there were no digs on it so He touched it and made it either and die. His disciples saw this and were amazed. When they asked Him about it, He told them they could do even greater deeds if they trust God and refuse to doubt. That remains true for Christians today.

So~

I take this truth of Jesus and turn it into a prayer for my grown kids today. My youngest turned 21 the day before yesterday. The Bible passage, ironically, is Matthew 21:21-22. I’m trusting God, refusing to doubt and believing that all my kids will beautifully proclaim the Gospel to this generation. And any mountianous struggles that are in the way will be lifted up and cast into the sea, just like Jesus said!

If you want to be a great leader, you must have a strong attitude to serve others. Jesus became a humble servant when He died on the cross and then conquered sin and death. He served all humanity and made a way for us to live an abundant life on earth and then live for eternity in Heaven.

Matthew 20:

²⁰ Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. ²¹ “What is your request?” he asked.

She replied, “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.”

²² But Jesus answered by saying to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?”

“Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!”

²³ Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My Father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.”

²⁴ When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. ²⁵ But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. ²⁶ But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant,²⁷ and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. ²⁸ For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

In Psalm 37 it is written out how to gain the desires of your heart, promised from God.

Psalm 37:

A rich man came to Jesus. He wanted the eternal life Jesus always talked about. He asked Him what he could to get that kind of life and Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give the money to poor people. That was too great of a sacrifice so he walked away sad.

But there was still hope. God could still change the rich young man’s heart because with God all things are possible.

Matthew 19:

¹⁶ Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

¹⁷ “Why ask me about what is good?”Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. But to answer your question—if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments.”

¹⁸ “Which ones?” the man asked.

And Jesus replied: “‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. ¹⁹ Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[c]”

²⁰ “I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else must I do?”

²¹ Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²² But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

²³ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. ²⁴ I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

²⁵ The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.

²⁶ Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”

Psalm 23 was written by David. So many times I read it when I attend a funeral.

Its the way to begin a great day. Pray it out loud for everyone you know at the start of your day.

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Honor God. He hears the prayers of the helpless. He also hears the cries of the guilty. His love is unending for all humanity.

Psalm 22:

Peter who was possibly Jesus’ most passionate disciple had big emotions. Sometimes he greatly glorified God with his words. At other times he put his foot in his mouth and said the the wrong thing.

In Matthew 16, there are a few notable verses as Jesus and his disciples converse. Peter stands out in this passage. Here is a list of notable verses along with Peter interacting with Jesus. And then the full passage follows.

1)Jesus asked His disciple who people thought He was. Peter promptly replies that He is the Messiah that the prophets spoke of to the Jews. Jesus was pleased and blessed Peter.

2)Then Jesus blessed Peter even more by telling him he was Peter, which means rock, and upon such faith in God, Jesus Himself, would build His church. Even hell could not overcome such dedication and trust in God.

3)Jesus then began telling His disciples how He would die and then raise from the dead.

4)In all his zeal and emotion Peter then spoke up and said the wrong thing. He told Jesus such things wouldn’t happen.

5)Jesus directly got on to him and commanded the devil to stop being involved in the situation.

6)Then Jesus we must all deny ourselves and each take up our cross and follow Him. We must deny ourselves.

23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. 11.

Matthew 16:

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”^[a]

¹⁴ “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”

¹⁵ Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah,^[b] the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷ Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John,^[c] because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. ¹⁸ Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’),^[d]and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell^[e] will not conquer it. ¹⁹ And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid^[f] on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit^[g] on earth will be permitted in heaven.”

²⁰ Then he sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

²¹ From then on Jesus^[h] began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.

²² But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him^[i] for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”

²³ Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. ²⁵ If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. ²⁶ And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?^[j] Is anything worth more than your soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. ²⁸ And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

So~

I pray today. God, in all our emotion and zeal for you, let us remember to control our tongue, deny ourselves and submit to you. With Jesus, I pray.

Guard your heart. It will guard your words.

For about six months I’ve been writing down verses that I read about speaking. It’s a lengthy list. But today as I was listening to Turning Point by Dr. David Jeremiah, he summed up every verse I found with simply one verse. ~

My Words verses list~

Proverbs 4:23 guard your heart

Proverbs 15:23

Proverbs 29:11

Prov 16:23-24

Ephesians 4:29

Proverbs 16:21

Psalm 141:3

Proverbs 13:2

Proverbs 21:23

Proverbs 4:20

James 1:19 carefully chosen words ampc 

Matt 12:33-37

1 Peter 3:10 mouth from speaking evil

Ephesians 4:29

Proverbs 16:27 gossip

Prov 17:4 gossip

Prov 17::7 eloquent words

Psalm 141:3 guard your words

Prov 17:14 quarrel

Ps 139:4 God knows 

Pr 17:19 quarrel

Pr 17:20 lying

Pr 17:27 few words

Pr 17:28 few words

Ps 141:1-4 control my lips in prayer 

Pr 18:2 fools words

Pr 18:4wise words

Pr 18:6-7 lips of fools

Pr 18:8 gossip

Pr 18:13 listening

Pr 18:17 lawsuit/ first to speak 

Pr 18:20 fruit of mouth

Pr 18:20  harvest of lips

Pr 18:21power of life and death

Pr 18:23 poor pleading 

Pr 19:5 liar

Pr 19:9 liar

Pr 19:13 quarrelsome wife

Pr 19:28 mouth of wicked 

Pr 20:14 haggle

Pr 20:15 wise words

Pr 20:18 wise advice

Pr 20:19 gossip/chatterers

Pr 20:20 insult

Pr 20:25 rash promise

Pr 20:22 get even

Pr 21:6 wealth from a lying tongue

Pr 21:9 quarrelsome wife

Pr 21:11 punish mocker/instruct wise

Pr 21:18 quarrelsome complaining wife

Pr 21:23 tongue

Pr 21:24 mockers

Pr 21:28 false/credible witness

Pr 18:8 rumors

Matt 6:34 saying

Eccl 5:3 too many words 

Eccl 5:5 promise

Eccl 5:7 talk is cheap 

Proverbs 22:17-19 words and heart

Eccl 10:12

Eccl 12:11 wise words that are painful

Prov25:15 soft speech

Prob 25:18 telling lies 

Prov 26:4-5

Prov 26:17

Prov 26:20 quarrels

Prov 26:28 lying and flattering

Prov 27:1 bragging

Prov 27:2 others praise you

Prov 27:4 rebuke

Prov 27:14 loud mouth in the morning

1 peter 3:10 don’t speak evil and lie

Proverbs 29:11 fools vent, wise hold back

Prov 29:19 Words alone not correction

Prov 29:20 speaking without thinking

Ps 139:4 God already knows what I will say

Ps 141:3 God control my words

Ps 4:4 don’t speak when you’re angry

Matthew 5:37 yes be yes no be no

Ps 17:3 determined not to sin with words

Prov 2:6 mouth of God, wisdom

Prov 2:12 twisted words from bad people  

Matthew 12:37 give an account on judgement day

Proverbs 4:20-22 words of a godly father to his children are life giving and healing to the whole body

Prov 4:24  avoid perverse and corrupt talk 

Prov 5:1-6 stay away from immoral women

Prov 6:20-23

Children never forget your mother and fathers admonition 

Psalm 4:4

Remain silent, control your anger

Exodus 4:10-16 Moses asks God to not use him as a spokesman

God gave me a gifting of love for His Word. I truly believe in it. Everyday I pray the Word of God over my family and all those around. David also loved God’s Word as he described it in Psalm 19.

Psalm 19:

Jesus is the world’s greatest leader. He died and came back to life so that all humanity has the option of life after they die.

In Matthew 14, a close relative and the humble introducer of Jesus’ ministry to those around, John the Baptist, was cruelly beheaded by King Herod. I know this would have hurt Jesus. He needed time alone to think and sort through the pain of this awful deed.

After He was told the news He quickly left to go someplace to be alone. His mind was heavy. In His humanity, Jesus needed to cry over His great loss. For a careless stupid reason, John the Baptist had been killed. The king liked John but because of his lust over a woman and her dance, he was trapped by his speaking without thinking first. Most likely he was drunk. And now the humble John the Baptist was humiliated in death.

Jesus left his ministering to be alone but as he went the crowds kept coming. So what did Jesus do? He set aside the great heaviness of losing his beloved cousin and focused on the people. He went beyond the second mile of caring for them and poured compassion out on them and healed them. Jesus called John the greatest. Those words may have comforted Jesus as He continued ministering when He wanted to grieve.

Matthew 14:

¹⁰ So John was beheaded in the prison,¹¹ and his head was brought on a tray and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. ¹² Later, John’s disciples came for his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus what had happened.

¹³ As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns. ¹⁴ Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

So~

I pray today…Jesus I thank You that we are hidden in You. You set the example of being the worlds greatest leader. You ARE the King of Kings and Lord of lords. Give us the strength today to minister like you.